Tagged: Santa

So now this holiday season I can say that I’ve officially seen all 5 “Silent Night Deadly Night” Movies! I’ve noticed a lot of people haven’t given the latter sequels a real chance, while the original is often a go to flick for most holiday horror fans. The fact is the 4th and 5th installments are pretty sweet additions to the franchise that operate similarly to “Halloween 3: The Season of the Witch”. Meaning they have absolutely zilch to do with the original three slasher themed Christmas flicks that came before them.

I think it’s a good thing actually, because at this point, I’m kinda over the whole “killer in a santa suit thing” trope. It’s been a done to death and the best “killer in a Santa suit” is a French movie from 1989 called “3615 Code Pere Noel” that pretty much no one has ever seen. So a year later in 1990, ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 4: The Initiation’ is it’s own movie completely, incorporating the Christmas thing just as a back drop for the whole weird ass story to unfold within. Directed by Brian Yuzna who was hot off the heels of ‘Society’ & ‘Bride of Reanimator’ helmed this x-mas oddity and even got horror icon Reggie Bannister (Phantasm) and always creepy genre fave Clint Howard to appear. On top of that he employs fx wizard Screaming Mad George (Predator, Nightmare on Elm St. 5) to work his usual bizarre monster effects magic even with the obvious limited budget.

It’s’ is a weird one that tells the tale of a reporter, played by the beautiful Neith Hunter (Near Dark) who’s investigating the bizarre death of a woman who leaped from a building and burned up in flames on the sidewalk. She soon finds herself mixed up in a weird coven of witches who’re trying to initiate her into their cult and have her take part of a gory sacrificial ceremony during the Christmas season. There’s giant bugs, disgusting transformations, huge gross maggots and Clint Howard running around like a madman chasing her all over the place. It also directly addresses the blatant sexism against women in the workplace quite nicely. Hunter’s character struggles with almost every man she comes into contact with, as pretty much all the men in this movie act like complete sexist dipshits.

There’s a bit of Yuzna’s “Society” style of grossness to “The Initiation” and it effectively displays plenty of squirm-worthy sequences that are sure to make people cringe in their seats. I enjoyed this one, not as much as ‘Part 5’ but it was a welcome departure from the Santa suit slasher concept of the previous three installments. I really wished ‘Christmas’ was more of a central theme to this but at least you get a bunch of shots with Christmas trees, decorations and lights in nearly every shot. A truly bizarre chapter in the series that’s definitely worth a watch if you’re fan of weird movies with some impressive practical effects work. You can get a three pack DVD of the Silent Night 3-5 on Amazon or pick up the VHS. Either way check it out if you’re looking for some weird cinema this holiday season!!

Here’s some really rad Christmas themed comic book covers from yesteryear to get you into the holiday mood! Check out these 24 holiday comic book covers and have an awesome Christmas eve night! Ho Ho Ho!!

I love digging up cool comic books that took place around Christmas time and Daredevil #229 fits that bill quite perfectly! This is an especially rad cover of a time when Matt Murdock went homeless on the streets of Hell’s Kitchen due to the Kingpin ruining his entire life. This has got to be one of the lowest points in the characters history as Murdock is down on his luck in this grim story arc written by Frank Miller before he turned into a crazy douche bag. This issue also has one of the most brutal fights between Murdock and the Kingpin as they go head to head in Fisk’s office. It’s bloody and Matt gets his ass kicked big time…damn I’m feeling as I type this the urge to read these issues again immediately! The cover is brilliantly drawn back in 1986 by one of my fav artists David Mazzucchelli and clearly shows how crappy Christmas was that particular year for Daredevil….

Its Christmas season once again now and every year I wait for a cool unique new holiday movie to amaze me. Last year it was the awesome Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (which I recently watched and it was even better the second time around) and this year I am hoping to get a chance to see Dick Mass’ “Sint” if it gets a release here. But it seems every year I wait for someone to tell the creepy tale of The Krampus and it never happens!

Believe me an X-mas movie done tastefully about the Krampus would be quite a tale-but first if you don’t know the folklore of ol’ Krampa check out a blog I did a couple years ago to get acquainted with this Christmas creep.

So agreed the Krampus is quite a strange dude huh? A total holiday Hard Ass! But you can agree that a creepy x-mas movie would be awesome huh? My idea for a Krampus themed film would be almost like a “Home Alone” style movie, where the demon goes after the naughty kids on Christmas night until he meets his match with one naughty boy who gives the Krampus a beating that he will never forget Continue reading →

I was lucky enough to see the wonderful “Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale” this holiday season, a movie I ranted alot about here before I even saw it. It will be one that I’ll be purchasing on DVD as soon as it hits stores as it’s truelty a wonderful little christmas film. Well I also discovered another movie I missed out on this holiday season, this one however may be a while to wait to see-It’s called “Sint” and it looks pretty damn bad ass…

This one is a Dutch film direceted by Dick Maas, who’s probably most well know here for his movie “The Shaft” which starred Naomi Watts, has now decided to take on not Santa Claus but his similar companion good ol’ jolly Saint Nick Continue reading →

A couple days ago I did a blog about The Krampus, a feirce Christmas demon of Austrian folklore who terrorizes naughty children around the holidays and was good buds with Santa. Now you better believe there’s more Christmas creeps than just the Krampus from folklore. So let’s see who else joins the ranks of “good” ol’ Saint Nick’s bad boy buddies. Here’s a few more legendary x-mas party poopers to brighten the holidays for all the naughty kids of the world!

So before we get too far away from Christmas time i just HAD to throw some mad props up to this rad vhs tape i found this year called “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus” at the local Goodwill.

I am huge fan of the stop motion Christmas adventures-“Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” had been my all time favorite until this year. I could tell when i found this vhs tape that i was in for a treat! It too was made by Ranki/Bass in 1985 and was written by Wizard of Oz creator L. Frank Baum. Basically it’s a story of how Santa Claus came to be. You’d never know Santa had such an awesome upbringing.

In this story he is raised in the magical forest of Burzee by a group of immortal wizards and fairies. However as he gets older he gets sent out into the mortal world to spread joy to the world with his weird annoying elven buddy Tingler and his tiger Sheagra. Once there however things get difficult for ol’ Santa. After making some toys for some local children his plans are thwarted by a group of beastly, toy hatin’, Orc like monsters who can turn invisible at will. So Santa goes to war with the help of his wizard buddies in a battle for Christmas. Yeah it’s pretty epic and by far the BEST Christmas adventure of all time. So next year try and find this little gem maybe they’ll release it on DVD or even better maybe Peter Jackson could make this one into a live action movie!